In my research online, I have found a truism that CV is the most basic syllable type cross-linguistically, and is in fact present in all languages. Other syllable types are not present in all languages. This raises the question: is there any language that uses only CV syllables?
I thought I had found my answer from the World Atlas of Language Structures, which states:
In a relatively small number of languages this [CV] is the only type of syllable permitted. Such languages include Hawaiian and Mba (Adamawa-Ubangian, Niger-Congo; Democratic Republic of Congo).
However, Wikipedia's article on Hawaiian phonology contradicts the claim that Hawaiian is strictly CV. It describes Hawaiian syllables as (C)V(V), and provides the following example: "/alo/ ('front') contrasts with /ʔalo/ ('to dodge')." It's clear that the first syllable of /alo/ is V, not CV.
Finding online information about Mba was harder, but here's a word list. It's possible that the transcription is incorrect or ignores glottal stops, but it certainly looks like plenty of words have V or CVV syllables: for example nuÍbebea, bia, and even u.
In another language, Mamara/Minyanka, most of the words starting with 'a' seem to be borrowings from European languages, but a couple seem to be native words beginning with V syllables: aa, ahayi.
So: are there actually any languages in which all syllables are CV, without any V, CVV, or other types?
Note: I'm particularly interested in languages that don't have diphthongs, as those could be considered sequences of two vowels or a vowel and a glide. However, I will also accept languages that are strictly CV where the V can include diphthongs.
